rookery

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a breeding colony or nesting place of rooks, penguins, seals, or other social animals

   Thousands of seabirds returned to the island rookery in spring.

2. 2
   noun

   historically, a crowded and dilapidated urban tenement district, often associated with crime

   The reformer's report described families living in an overcrowded rookery.

Formed from rook + -ery and recorded from 1725 for a colony or nesting place of rooks. The word broadened to colonies of other social birds and animals. By metaphor, nineteenth-century speakers applied it to densely crowded, disreputable urban housing.

Topics